There's an energetic fan group on Facebook with a lot of folk in it, but they don't seem to want to come in here. I've suggested that in the past, but I got surprisingly many negative comments about this place. Mainly how it looks and functions, something I've never thought about as a hindrance.

I wish people would create even more own topics for each new game, as lots of interesting posts and small conversations are now buried in megathreads like "What are you playing" and "Last game you finished". People could also use the search function more and bring up already existing game threads to share their thoughts in those ones instead of listing their most recent gaming adventures in those two threads mentioned.

Yeah, of course it would be nice with more activity here. As previously stated in this thread, people in other places to seem to have a negative view towards the forum. It would be really nice to see more threads and more people posting around here. I mean we cant force anyone here, but more interactions from the allies (I know that is hard) would maybe drag more people here.

I think something that could help is just more support from the Allies themselves. The Patreon plug is pretty smooth at this point but the forum itself is very rarely mentioned in any form - I'm sure there's a lot of fans that don't even know this place exists. The other thing that would give us a significant bump in activity is more involvement from them as well as Blood seems to be the only member to even come on here anymore. I realize that last point is a little hard to ask for though, as I'm sure they're all fairly busy as it is.

What I'd love to see more of in 2019 forums in general is just more conversations between posters. Nothing makes me more sad than a thread like, "What are you playing?" and responses that are just game names, or a game and a tiny description. Use that quote button! I just feel like voicing an opinion has superseded listening and responding. And that's what I feel are the strengths of forums; otherwise, it's just like Facebook posts and comments.

@sentinel-beach@Inflorescence I think that's actually a fair point. Usually when I post in the "Last game you finished" topic or something like that, I try to post in the main game topic first and link to them but I do think people mostly just post in those long form topics. I'd probably be in favour of removing those types of topics personally and seeing if people would create/post more in the main topics but that may not be a view held by the majority.

Other than that, there really isn't a huge amount we can do extra. Moobot mentions the forums on streams and then the odd shoutout here and there every so often but it's always going to be hard to reach out to more people unless the forums are used a bit more for interacting with the Allies or having some kind of representation in an event, something like how Huber will pick out youtube comments for Huber Syndrome.

I had suggested at one stage to announce our GOTY or something like that on one of the twitch streams but then that is something they already do with the patreon post. So it's gonna be tough to get properly noticed unfortunately.

I agree that all the general topics such as "What are you playing?" or "That's News" seem to actually hinder discussion, as different things get posted in succession by different people and it makes it hard to follow who's talking about what or to really go in-depth about any topic.

Also people have wildly different definitions of what constitutes "news".

In general, I feel like rather than posting every single new game announcement in the News topic, it would be better to create a new thread for that game, so a proper discussion about it can happen there.

Yeah, console specific threads at least would've been needed from the start for many of the news stories. At least there's a PS5 thread now. (Feels kinda weird to create one for PS4 anymore, but why not, if someone so wishes.)

I don't think the forums are currently active enough to split the news topic(s) off into a bunch of more specific ones. Currently, it would end up having to click to more things that update not frequently enough to be worth it. Replying to a post already highlights the person you're replying to, so it isn't that hard to follow who's responding to what. I see the PS5 topic, not sticking around to include all PS5 hardware and software discussion, but instead to be about the next gen console buildup surrounding the hardware until launch. People could make Nextbox and Switch Pro (new probably bullshit rumors calling it a next gen console now) topics if they're interested in following the discussion around those, but there's no reason to make those topics solely for having them, clogging up the forums, if nobody is actually interested in discussing them. The same goes for games or any other topic. Really takes a person thinking "Okay, I want to see this discussed," or "I've got enough to say about this to warrant starting a topic surrounding it."

So really, if things seem slow it is just due to the small number of us who actively use this place and the few who care enough to take the initiative to create topics others care about actually discussing. That points more to small userbase than anything else wrong going on. Some of the suggested changes could help if we ever do expand to serve more users, but until then it just adds hassle for no reason.

I would caution against trying to get other specific communities to come on these forums. In these communities, like the ResetERA, subreddit, FB group, etc., there's already a separation within these communities, as there is some animosity between those groups. Trying to interact with them will only make it worse for these forums, I think so.

I have been pleased with the responses on most of my threads. I really appreciate that posters took the time to write thoughtful responses to my "Are We in a Golden Age of Videogames?" thread, as it was one that took me a while to compose. It always feels good to see lengthy, thoughtful responses and the activity in that thread alone made me feel more confident in this forum.

It can be confusing when trying to make threads about smaller games though. Before I made my "New and Upcoming Indie Games" thread, I was about to make a thread just dedicated to the first game that I listed, but after thinking about it, I figured it wouldn't be the most fruitful path. I'd love to see more discussion dedicated to "indie" games, but I am not sure how to go about it just yet.

I think news topics would have good potential outside of the news-specific thread. I'm also surprised to not see more movie discussion topics in the General Topic area. Maybe I will start a thread and see how it goes.